Winter Warriors
by Woods Warrior
Summary: A heavy snow covers the lake territories, and a few ThunderClan cats take advantage of the situation.


**For the LightClan event Secret Snow Kitties, that was like a Secret Santa, but with Warriors fanfics.  
Merry Christmas Meta Write! :D Sorry it's a little late, but my internet was broke.**

Deep in the forest, a fiery, orange tom was looking over his territory that had been transformed from a dull brown to a crisp white by the heavy snowfalls of leafbare. Immediately in front of him, the snow that covered the shoreline of the lake appeared smooth and pristine – not even a mouse had set paw on it yet. Immediately beyond that, the lake itself appeared shiny and black in comparison to the snow surrounding it; a perfect reflection of the pale gray clouds in the sky appeared on its smooth surface. In the distance, on the other side of the lake, the scenery was very similar to his immediate surroundings: frost and snow-covered trees, with untarnished white snow beneath them. It was little moments like these that Firestar relished. The perfect, peaceful picture that only nature, herself, could paint. Not even the wind bothered to disturb the scene. In fact, nothing seemed to be moving at all.

Nothing, that is, except for whatever was making a rustling noise in a tree above the leader. He looked up, hoping to see a squirrel that he might be able to catch, but instead, he saw a familiar gray tom.

"Graystripe, what are you-," he began to ask, only for his eyes to widen as he saw noticed a mischievous grin on his friend's face, and saw a large drift of snow on branch directly below the gray tom, and directly above his own head. The moment he realized what was happening, was one moment too late to take any preventative measures other than cursing – which was quickly cut off by the avalanche of snow that descended upon the poor leader.

Moments later, a gray tom hopped down from the branch, and landed beside a snow-pile, tilting his head as he looked at it quizzically.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was that you Firestar?" he started, "I honestly thought it was a fire, so I was trying to do our clan a service by putting out." Graystripe's voice was dripping with enough sarcasm to fill a small pond.

At that comment, the snowdrift erupted, spewing forth a powerful warrior that quickly pinned the gray-furred tom to the ground.

"You want fire, I'll show you fire," Firestar mewed with mock fury, "War has just been declared…"

* * *

Elsewhere in the forest, a black she-cat was out looking for any prey that would still be out, when she heard a voice behind her.

"Hollypaw!" the voice called in a hushed tone. Hollypaw turned and saw that the voice belonged to her brother. "Come over here!" the golden tom mewed with a smile.

"What do you need, Lionpaw?" Hollypaw began to ask, before seeing a sizable pile of paw-sized pieces of snow. "What are those for?"

Her brother kept smiling. "We're going to ambush Berrynose," he mewed excitedly.

Hollypaw looked at him with a questioning expression. "Why?"

"I don't like him, you don't like him, and Jaypaw doesn't like him, and it'll be funny."

Hollypaw couldn't help but to twitch her whiskers in agreement. "Speaking of Jaypaw, I actually think it would funnier to see him wind up with snow all over his pelt."

At this, Lionpaw's smile got even wider. "That's the beauty of it!" he explained, "Jaypaw's looking for herbs a little ways down this trail. We're going to get Berrynose to throw snowballs back at us, and make him miss and hit Jaypaw instead. Then, we sit back and watch."

Hollypaw's eyes widened at the audacity of her brother's plan. "Jaypaw will kill – literally _kill _– him!"

"If we're lucky…" was her brother's reply.

"That's horrible!" she exclaimed, a look of mock horror on her face. The mock horror immediately turned to sincere mischief. "Let's do it…"

They each took up positions on opposite sides of the path, well hidden by bramble thickets, and waited for their prey to come.

"How do we even know he'll be coming this way?" Hollypaw asked, as they moved half of the snowball cache to the other side of the trail.

"He always comes this way." Lionpaw mewed matter-of-factly.

"How do you know-," Hollypaw started, only to be cut off by her brother.

"I told you," He mewed, his grin returning, "I have it all planned out…" Hollypaw found it disturbing that her littermate had put so much thought into this scheme. She didn't have much time to dwell on this, however, as they soon heard the sound of pawsteps approaching. Without saying a word, they both dived into their respective hiding spots, and waited for the cat making the noise to appear.

Surely enough, Berrynose came into view shortly after. Hollypaw looked in her brother's direction, barely able to see him through the brambles, and received a nod. With that, she picked up a piece of the packed snow with her claws, and launched it through the air, managing a direct hit on her intended target's face.

Berrynose recoiled, before looking around angrily. "Alright, who did that?! This has got to be some stupid apprentice joke! I am a _Warrior! _You can't do this to me! You'll regret this once I find you!"

Hollypaw could barely see Lionpaw roll his eyes. He then mewed in a rouge accent, pitching his voice in the absolute lowest octave possible, "Is that you, Tigerstar? An' is this me?"

"Who said that?!" Berrynose yelled to the trees in response to the insult, madly turning his head left and right. Another snowball hit from the opposite direction of the first, followed by two hitting him simultaneously. Before he knew it, he was being pelted rapidly by snowballs that appeared to just rain from the heavens, stopping only once the assailants had exhausted their supply of ammunition.

Lionpaw stepped out from his hiding spot, his grin still having yet to leave his face. "Hey, Berrynose," he mewed as usual, before switching his voice back into the low-pitched, rogue accent, "Mighty strange weather we're havin', ain't it?"

"You!" Berrynose exclaimed as he chased the golden tom. He was tackled to the ground when his destination was just in sight; some distance away, a gray tom was gathering herbs, disregarding the antics taking place on the other end of a clearing. As Lionpaw was brought down, another snowball hit Berrynose from behind, distracting him long enough for Lionpaw to throw him off and put distance between them, leaving Berrynose trying to choose which apprentice to go after next.

"Come on, Berrynose! Don't tell me a _brave and noble warrior _like you can't even throw a snowball!" Lionpaw taunted, positioning himself along a direct line from Berrynose to Jaypaw.

"Oh, really?" Berrynose snarled. "_This _is how you throw a snowball!" Quickly, he scooped a pawful of snow with a rock, and lobbed it toward Lionblaze.

The golden tom's eyes widened; he didn't expect Berrynose to get _that_ mad! Out of sheer instinct, he quickly ducked down to avoid the rock/snowball, leaving it heading toward his brother. Quickly, he turned to see whether or not it hit the blind tom, and sent a silent prayer of thanks to StarClan when he saw that it had sailed well above his brother's head. However, it still caused a massive amount of snow to cascade down on top of Jaypaw.

A loud rumble could be heard, followed by a louder yowl that was cut short, and echoed off of the hills and trees surrounding the cats. All was silent for a few moments, until a gray head found its way out of the snowdrift and made the loudest noise of all.

"Berrynose!" Jaypaw yowled angrily. The three other cats all thought that he surely must be mad enough to instantly melt though all the snow.

The warrior was wide-eyed with fear, as cats had learned, by now, that Jaypaw's temper was a force to be reckoned with, and it was also considered unwise to make oneself an enemy of someone who could (and probably would) mix deathberries in with other herbs to be given to the one in question, and be pardoned by simply claiming that StarClan told him to.

"What makes you think it was me?" Berrynose asked, attempting free himself of the blame.

"'_This is how you throw a snowball,' _was the last thing I heard before it hit above me, and buried me in snow…" Jaypaw mewed angrily. It briefly surprised Berrynose that the medicine cat's hearing was that good, but his thoughts quickly shifted to wondering what the reprisal would be.

"By the way," the blind tom continued, a spiteful look about his face, "_This _is how you throw a snowball…" The next thing Hollypaw knew, the same rock that Berrynose threw moments before, was screaming through the air, before being stopped by Berrynose's head, and causing the tom to be knocked off his paws.

"Great StarClan!" Lionpaw yowled in surprise; the rock traveled not more than a whisker away from his own head. The two littermates watched in terror as their brother padded angrily up to Berrynose.

"You mousebrain!" The stub-tailed warrior exclaimed, "Can't you see the difference between a snowball and a rock?"

"No, Berrynose, I _can't_," Jaypaw meowed bitterly, "Not any more than any cat can see the difference between you and a piece of foxdung." Hollypaw winced at the harsh words coming from her brother. Even though it wasn't directed toward her, she could still feel the sting of the insult.

"You can't treat me like this! I'm a warrior!" Berrynose yowled in protest.

"Good for you!" Jaypaw replied sarcastically, "_I _am _the _medicine cat apprentice. Do we really need to measure whose tail is longer?" his face took on a mock expression of shock and sorrow after using the phrase, "_Oh, I'm sorry!_ Besides, do you really want everybody knowing that you were bested by a couple apprentices with snowballs, and hit in the head with a rock by a cat who's _blind?_"

Berrynose bristled before getting to his paws and nodding. "Fine," he meowed, "You all just remember this the next time you need me to do anything."

_Like we would ask you for a favor, anyway. _Hollypaw thought, as the defeated warrior stalked away. She turned to see Lionpaw burst into laughter.

"Oh, StarClan, that was great! How were you able to hit him anywa-," the golden tom was cut off by a large pawful snow that was delivered to his face with enough force to make him stumble. "Ow! What was that for?" he bristled as he turned toward his brother, the assailant.

"To be honest, the rock was actually meant for you for planning this out." Jaypaw meowed, matter-of-factly, "I could tell you were planning something along these lines when you started stalking Berrynose and I, both, as soon as it started snowing a few sunrises ago. I just thought it wouldn't be until later." Ignoring his dumbfounded brother, Jaypaw turned toward Hollypaw, looking directly at her, almost as if he could see her.

"And you," the medicine cat apprentice meowed to his sister, "this is for helping him." The next thing she knew, Jaypaw had hurled a snowball toward her with surprising accuracy, and she ducked down in order to avoid it.

"Mousedung," Jaypaw cursed, "Don't worry; you'll get what's coming to you." He then turned in such a way that he could address both of his littermates. "And now, you both still owe me for taking care of Berrynose, so you're going to help me gather herbs." The blind tom almost smiling to himself.

"What? How are we going to do that? Everything's covered in snow!" Lionpaw yowled exasperatedly. One would think he had been asked to swim around the lake.

In reply, Jaypw stuck his paw into the snow, and unburied a small fern. "Oh, look. Here's an herb," he meowed, repeating the process several more times, "Here's an herb, here's an herb. Are you beginning to catch on?"

Lionpaw and Hollypaw both gulped at the arduous task that lay ahead of them. "This is why I decided to become a warrior." Hollypaw muttered.

By the end of the day, she was wore out, but content at having spent it with her littermates. She yawned widely as she got into her nest and went to sleep almost immediately, pondering things that weary minds tend to wonder about, such as why her fresh-kill had a strange hint to its flavor. _Probably just the cold, _she thought. As she slept heavily, her dreams were filled with memories of being Leafpool's apprentice, brought on by collecting herbs all day. Mid-dream, something occurred to her: her fresh-kill had the same taste as poppy seeds! But who would want to give her poppy seeds, and why? Her eyes widened as images of the past day flowed in front of them; Jaypaw bringing her fresh-kill to eat when they shared prey that evening, Jaypaw saying to her "_You'll get what's coming to you." _

"Wha- No!" She yowled as she awoke to falling from her upturned nest, and landing in a cold snow-drift. She found her way out of the snowdrift to find herself in the same clearing in which they had ambushed Berrynose, and saw her two littermates standing over her nest, Lionpaw – the traitor – wearing his goofy grin that seemed to be one of the staples of the day, and Jaypaw smirking – even _he_ found it funny.

The blind tom looked at her with that smirk, and meowed, "I told you that you'd get what's coming to you."


End file.
